Unless There Are Children Crying
by STRONG Writing
Summary: So while I work out the minute details of my other story, I decided to write one about a younger Sam and Eleven. It worked off a quote, "You never interfere in the affairs of other people or planets, unless there are children crying". I figured, why not?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm going to finish the other Superwho(lock) fic once I figure out how to put all the pieces in the right order… For now, take some ficlet-thing. The idea came from a gif I saw, I haven't been able to find it again… Well, enjoy or whatever you do. **

"Doctor, where are we? This doesn't look like 2500." Amy Pond stepped out of the TARDIS, looking left and right around herself. Nope, not looking right to her. Time to go. She was about to call back that nothing at all of interest was around, when a hand came out of the blue box and pulled her backwards by the collar.

"Shhhh." The Doctor, funny looking fellow with bright eyes and a flamboyant gait, put a finger to his lips. Before explaining, and before Amy could even ask what he was going on about, he flew up the stairs and pulled down the scanner. An image was on the screen, and he whirled it around for Amy to see. She looked up curiously at the scene playing out before them—rather, the scene they were watching from wherever the scan came in from. Most likely somewhere before them or their box.

On the screen was a young boy, about thirteen or so, head in his hands and shoulders shaking. The Doctor was looking at him with _that look. _You know the one, I know the one, Amy knew the one. Yes, _that one. _That look that got people wondering why he couldn't just mind his own business.

"Doctor, come on, it's fine. Children cry all the time." Amy sighed, becoming impatient with his antics. Everywhere they went. Why could it never be an easy trip? He wasn't budging. "Doctor?"

"All the time?" The Doctor asked quietly. Just loud enough to be audible, but if anyone had been standing any further away it would have escaped them. "All the time, Amy?" This time it was louder. "No, Amy, no. Children only cry when there's something wrong. More specifically, children only go off on their own to cry when they don't want people to see them. Right there something is wrong, because children cry to get attention." He turned around and hopped down the stairs two at a time. He grabbed Amy by the shoulders and grinned.

And before she could blink The Doctor was pulling her out of the TARDIS and down the small gravel path. A couple of seconds later, they were standing in front of the boy from the screen, and he hadn't noticed them yet. Well, he would once The Doctor decided to—

"Hi!"

The boy looked up at them, face red and eyes bloodshot like he hadn't slept for days. He quickly composed himself and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Oh, uh, sorry." He grumbled, pulling a backpack closer to his leg across the ground. "Do you want to sit here?"

"No, I want you to tell me what's wrong." The Doctor invaded the kid's personal space, taking the seat to the immediate right of the distressed child. He poked him on the shoulder and flashed him that prying grin. Amy couldn't help but wonder why he thought he had any skill with children at all.

"It's nothing. Really." He shuffled over to the edge of the bench and looked The Doctor over with that 'I'm ready to run, jackass' look on his face.

"If it was nothing, would you be crying?"

"I'm just really emotional, is all." The boy laughed nervously.

"What's your name?"

"Sam." Sam replied, keeping a close eye on the man and his friend in case they tried to pull something. Strangers were never this kind out of the goodness of their hearts. For all he knew they could be demons.

"And why were you emotional, Sam?" The strange man inquired, fiddling with his bow tie.

"Just… Looking for my brother. He's around here somewhere…" Sam muttered to himself.

"Where did he go?" Amy asked, sitting down next to The Doctor on the bench.

"Who are you anyway?"

"I'm The Doctor, this is Amy, and we're traveling. Now, your brother. What's he doing here, and what is he doing leaving you alone out here?"

"We're traveling. And dad went off somewhere. So he went to find him. That's all." He was looking a little better now. Not like somebody who had been crying into his hands a minute ago.

"Ah, I see. And any particular reason your father went off, Sam?" The Doctor pressed, leaning in closer, he had a bad habit of doing that.

"No, not really." He wasn't going to tell them. He was already pushing it explaining as much as he had, and he didn't even know why he was doing that. He knew better! He slapped himself mentally back onto the right path. He wouldn't tell them anything else.

"Not really or no?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I'm trying to help."

"But there's nothing to help with." Sam stood up, lifted his backpack over his shoulder and started to walk away.

"Nice to meet you!" The Doctor waved enthusiastically at his receding back and then looked aside to Amy. "Come along, then."

"What?" Amy asked, "All that fuss and we're just going to leave?" She was utterly confused. Normally it took something much more difficult to put The Doctor off or have him leave something be. "No running after him and trying to find his brother? Nothing?"

The Doctor walked down the path to the TARDIS, pushing her door open and ascending the stairs to the machine in the center. He stroked one of the levers tenderly and then bounced down the stairs on the other side. Amy watched from the doorway as he raced around under the TARDIS control panel and grabbed up several random bits of flotsam from the hanging seat and the floor. He zapped something with his sonic screwdriver and then ran back up the stairs and down the other side only to run out the door again into the open.

"What are you doing?" Amy followed him again, but if he ran back into the box again and expected her to follow him here there and everywhere twelve times he had another thing coming.

"We're going to follow him. Something isn't right, and I want to find out what it is." The Doctor looked over his shoulder at Amy, "So yes, we're going to follow after him and try to find his brother."

**Okay, so yeah, that was really bad. XD **

**Thank you for your time and patience, I'm sure you had something better to do with it. **


	2. Chapter 2

**So, I got positive reviews on the last chapter, and since I just finished six heavy-duty school assignments I decided I would unwind with some writing of the fanfiction variety. When we last heard from our heroes… **

After fumbing around the TARDIS for a little while longer in the park, The Doctor and Amy rush off in the direction little Sam had gone in. Amy had no idea how they were going to find him, considering he'd gone off some time ago and they didn't have any leads. However as always the man had a plan. By 'as always' I mean something along the lines of 'once-in-a-blue-moon-on-a-planet-without-a-moon'.

So for a good two and a half hours The Doctor and Amy were on a wild goose chase around the town, asking people if they'd seen a boy matching Sam's description and where he'd gotten off to. They were starting to think they wouldn't find him when a shop owner had pointed them in the direction of the motel down the road. She didn't know a room number, but she suggested they ask the manager.

"Thank you!" and with that the two ran from the shop towards the motel. It wasn't a big place, and it really didn't look like a place you would want to take your children. More like where a cranky business man would stay on a trip for work. Maybe Sam's father was a cranky business man? An alien cranky business man? The Doctor made a mental note to ask Sam about his planet of origin later. Amy trotted along behind him, calling to him breathlessly,

"What if he's not there?"

"Then we wait for him to get back!" He shouted in reply, taking a quick look both ways before he crossed the street. Amy huffed and ran after him, wondering what the hell they would do waiting for him until he got back. How long would they need to wait? She hoped he was home.

Once they reached the motel, exhausted from all of the running they'd done the past few hours, they stepped as casually as they could manage into the front office and The Doctor walked up to the man behind the counter.

"Excuse me, have you seen a child come in here in the past couple of hours?" He asked, leaning over the counter, his personal-space-o-meter permanently in that state of disrepair. The manager, or who they assumed was the manager, looked him up and down before replying,

"A lot of people have kids. Care to specify?" He went back to whatever he was doing behind the counter, pushing buttons or writing something down as he stood there impatiently. He was really just waiting for the next shift to come in, he was waiting for the last one's replacement. Wouldn't she get an earful when she gets there. It'd been hours.

"About ye high," He held up a hand and measured it against the countertop, "Brown hair, probably had a backpack on him?" He made that face again. Not the face from before. That almost puppy-dog face when he wanted information he probably wasn't going to get. Amy had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "Seen him?"

"Him? Yeah, he came in here a couple hours ago. Went to his room. Haven't seen him since, why? You a relative or something?" The manager rapped his knuckles on the underside of the desk when he raised his hand from whatever he was doing, letting out a sharp hiss and a curse under his breath.

"Oh, yes. Sammy is our nephew! Which room did you say he was staying in?" The Doctor backed up from the desk and turned his head to Amy, gesturing for her to start toward the door.

"13. Just down there," He pointed, then returned to tending to his knuckles. The other two left.

"Okay, room 13, where did you get to?" The Doctor spouted to nobody in particular, and Amy looked left and right to make sure they weren't being watched by any shady characters. Actually, nobody seemed to be around. "Ah, there you are, you beautiful… Door." He whipped out his sonic screwdriver and held it up to the doorknob, adjusting the settings until the door popped open. "Now let's see if our friend is home." He sucked in a breath and pushed the door inward.

He peeked his head around the door at the room. It was dimly lit, with a bed on either side of one wall. A dresser sat across the room from the beds, with a couple of cellphones and a small pocket knife resting on the surface. That was odd. He stepped into the room, motioning for Amy to follow and crept around the edge of the room by the wall. The Doctor was surprised by the sudden slamming of the door, and turned around. There stood Sam, a gun in hand, holding it up to the two of them to be exact.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

**Sorry it's kind of short. XD I'll keep on with it when I can. Maybe tomorrow. **


	3. Chapter 3

** The fun continues… Or something to that effect. **

The time travelers raised their hands above their heads in a sign of peace or surrender—whichever one came first—but Sam wasn't all too anxious to put the weapon down. "Well?" He pressed. He wasn't afraid to pull that trigger, he hoped they knew that.

"Okay, I can see you're a bit… Testy-" The Doctor began, and was cut off by the kid taking the safety off of the gun. "Now now, we're only here to help, Sam." He started to lower his arms, but tossed them back into the air when Sam adjusted his grip on the trigger.

"Help with _what?_ I _said _it was fine!" If looks could kill The Doctor would be six feet under right now.

"Could you put that away, it's really not safe." The Doctor asked, cocking his head to the side. Guns really weren't his preferred means of dealing with things. And seeing a child with one. Sam shook his head.

"Get out." He demanded, stepping away from the door and gesturing to it with his shoulder. "Now, if you don't mind."

"Okay, listen here Sam. We're adults. Don't you need to listen to us or something?" Amy interjected, sick of sitting off to the side while they had their argument. Arguing was her specialty, after all. "Now, put the gun down. Let's talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." He shot back. Wow, this really wasn't working out for them.

"Yes, there is. You're obviously in need of some help finding your brother and father, Sam, and we can help." The Doctor began to reason with the child, making dramatic hand motions and pointing to him and his companion. "In fact we're probably the best people who can. Maybe the only people who can."

"Oh, I seriously doubt that." But they could tell that he was starting to waver, his eyes darting here and there and everywhere about the room.

"Something's happened to them, hasn't it?" Amy asked, the beginnings of a smirk on her face. The Doctor nodded in her direction, she'd gotten the ball rolling, now all they needed was to keep it that way. "Something other people wouldn't believe, or wouldn't be able to understand?"

Sam blinked, then leveled the gun once more. "Okay, who are you freaks?"

"Oi, no name calling mister!" Amy shouted. He rolled his eyes. She looked to her companion, and he shrugged.

The kid looked surprised at the sudden reprimandation, and from a complete stranger. He froze momentarily, then adjusted his grip on the gun. The Doctor noticed he was nervous. Couldn't really blame him. "What the hell are you anyway?"

"Language! How old are you? I'm sure your mother didn't raise you this way!" Amy snapped. She balled her hands into fists and jabbed her finger in his direction. "Be glad I don't have the authority to wash your mouth out!"

He seemed to be scratching around his head for a good response. The Doctor took advantage of this moment of confusion and tried to see if he could slip out of Sam's line of vision.

"Well," Amy's voice was still stern, but she wasn't shouting anymore. "What have you got to say for yourself?" Sam didn't seem to notice The Doctor, and if Amy did she knew better than to draw attention to him. Good old Amy Pond.

"Uh… Sorry?" Sam shrugged without really noticing it, and in that little slip of consciousness The Doctor reached out and pulled the gun from Sam's hand. The boy let out a distressed shout as The Doctor looked at the firearm with some confusion clear on his face. He grumbled something about disgusting weapons and tossed the gun into the trash bin behind him.

When he turned back to Sam, the kid looked defiant, but at the same time he looked as scared as he'd ever seen a kid. He would need to find out why, he would do that later.

"I'm sorry about that, but guns are just… Ugh." The Doctor smiled and held the thumbs-up to Amy, who returned it and walked to sit down on one of the beds. "Now that that's taken care of, maybe you could tell me what's gone on?" He sat down on the next bed and crossed his legs to listen to the boy tell his tale. Must be interesting, and The Doctor did love a good story. Sam just stood in front of him in shock. Weren't they going to attack him? _Were they really just people?_

"Hey, you alright?" Amy asked, turning to them and resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her palm. He snapped out of it and nodded.

"Who did you say you were?" He asked, fidgeting his foot uncomfortably. He wasn't about to get comfortable with these crazy stalker-or-whatever in his motel room.

"My name's The Doctor, and this is Amy Pond. We're traveling." The Doctor folded his hands in his lap and leaned backwards. "And you and your father and brother, what are you doing?"

Sam visibly gulped and replied slowly, "Traveling." Something told the companions that Sam wasn't telling the whole truth, but they decided to press that issue no further and move on to their reason for following Sam back here.

"Sam, tell me what happened to your father."

He shook his head.

"No, who are you?" Sam was stubborn. The Doctor liked that quality, Amy had a bad case of the stubborn bug, and it'd saved his life on more than one occasion. He was afraid he was getting attached to the kid.

"I just told you, my name's The Doctor and my friend here is Amy. We're traveling."

"Then why the hell are you following me?" Sam inquired, looking over at the waste basket. The Doctor waved a hand in front of his face.

"Because we can help you. In fact we might be the only people who can," This got the Sam's attention, and he asked them why that would be. "Because we deal with… Abnormal things. Things most people can't explain."

Sam was getting nervous again. They could be demons, they could be shifters, werewolves. He looked again towards the trash where his handgun had been tossed. It wasn't safe to leave it there in any case, the safety wasn't even on. Never was, really. It was rarely loaded, but when they came into the room he'd taken the safety off and slammed the rounds into it. Going against safety and his lessons. He mentally slapped himself. "So are you… Hunters too?" That could also be the case. If so, he either had the biggest problem in the world (hunters and his father never got along. Hunters and other hunters never got along, but John was just a little… Difficult) or this was a god-send.

"Hunters? Oh, um, yes of course, we're hunters. Obviously that's what we are, I mean what else could we be?" Amy rolled her eyes. She couldn't really expect him to fall for—

"Oh, great! Are you here about the weird disappearances too?" Sam nearly jumped for joy, but he couldn't restrain himself from shaking in his shoes with excitement. They could help him find dad, and Dean! Was he rushing to trust them? Probably, but if they really could help him… He would take the chance. Besides, if they were something like a shifter he had bullets in the gun… In the trash. Damn it.

"Oh, yes, the disappearances! Could you, uh, tell us again how that's working?" The Doctor asked, grinning nervously. Amy shook her head, but kept her mouth shut. This kid wasn't as smart as she was giving him credit for, anybody with an inch of sense could tell that The Doctor was lying. Not well, he always sucked at lying. Nothing changed. You'd think with his nine-hundred years or so that he'd have learned how to lie a little better. Wait, he was speaking again.

"Oh, yeah sure. I have the papers over… Over there." Sam rushed to the bedside table on the other side of Amy and pulled open the drawer. Instead of the traditional bible in there, it was chock full of papers, charts, articles, maps, and missing people posters. "Dad and Dean were working on this case, I was supposed to stay here and gather information from the people who live in the area. My notes are in my bag…" He passed the stack to The Doctor, Amy let out a huff at being overlooked. She got the giant notebooks though, with his horrible teenage-boy handwriting and the little scribbles over the words he spelt wrong and where he got sick of listening to the people ramble on and on. He was smarter than he looked, then. Alright.

"And what happened when they went to investigate, since I imagine that's what they were doing when they went missing?" The Doctor turned the stack of papers upside-down and read over the words that way, before tossing half of the maps to the side and looking over the missing posters. There were about seven people.

"Well, they, uh, just didn't come back. It's been about two days, and they wouldn't just not come home. So I was going to go after them, then you showed up." Sam looked at The Doctor and Amy expectantly, "You're gonna help me find them, right?"

The Doctor shot Amy a wary glance. One that said _I don't think this is our usual deal. _And then looked back at Sam. He couldn't lie to that face, but he couldn't deny it either. He sighed and offered a weak smile. "Yes. We're going to get them back."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey there. It's been a while. Sorry I hadn't updated too recently, it occurred to me that I had a book report due on Friday and I hadn't started the book. Because it was boring, and my soul was being sucked out through my eyes as I scanned the page. So I got a new book, and I'm skimming through that for tidbits, and since I'm half-done and it took about twenty or so minutes between periods today, figured I would write something up. Been itching to all week. Anywho, on with the show, yeah? **

The Doctor paced around the motel room, looking at each paper in turn for a split second as if to make it look like he knew what he was doing with it. Sam sat at one of the chairs next to a small table at the edge of the room, looking expectantly at the man as he had been doing for the past half hour or so. For a professional, he thought, The Doctor was taking a bit long to decipher the information. It'd only taken his dad ten minutes, and that was with Dean's help. Amy was here, too, but she'd flopped backwards onto the bed and folded her arms over her chest defiantly when asked to go and get her companion some brain food. Since then she'd alternated between pouting on the bed and sitting next to Sam at the table and talking about the case and other things. The Doctor noticed they seemed to be getting along very well, and smiled to himself.

"Aha!" He shouted, once he was done acting like he knew what a hunter was and what a hunter did. He'd been staring at the same five pictures for just as many minutes while he thought up something to tell the kid. He had no idea what they were facing, but he felt that he could make it up as he went along. "Sam! Let me see your notes for a second, and while you're at it, tell me what you think we're dealing with!" He flounced about in a circle until he nearly smashed himself into a wall. Sam scrambled across to the bed and picked up the notebook Amy had dropped there. He tossed it to The Doctor, who caught it and dropped everything else in his enthusiasm to catch it. "Good, good, I meant to do that." Amy rolled her eyes for what must have been the thousandth time.

"Well, at first we thought it was a ghost or something, since they could do this too, but now they think it's a vampire, and they went to go get it." He was beginning to ramble on a bit too when he was shushed as The Doctor nodded in false agreement. Sure, vampires, that could be it, but he wasn't too convinced at the moment. This had happened before, but it was something different this time. Similar but different, could be anything. Supernatural or otherwise, they would try to take care of it as well as they could. Amy was rolling this information over in her mind, taking it in nicely and without any protest or questions. Good old Amy Pond.

"Vampires, yes, of course. And do you know where these 'vampires' are?" The Doctor flipped through the book and then tossed it aside with the rest of the papers, he hadn't needed it anyway. What did hunters do with the information they collected anyway? He wasn't sure, he'd been trying to act cool. Needed to live up to that bow tie, you know?

"Well," Sam lifted a map up off the table and unfolded it, running his finger over a roadway highlighted with a red marker, "They figured it went up this way. I wasn't really allowed to give an opinion, since I wasn't coming along."

"Sure they're not just lost?" The Doctor attempted a joke. The looks he received from both Sam and Amy stopped him before he made any more mistakes. It seemed like Sam wouldn't even grace that question with a snappy answer. "Sorry, too soon. On that road, did you say? What's out there?" He walked over to look at the map over Sam's shoulder, and Amy tugged down the top to look over that way. Sure, she was seeing it backwards, but the satisfaction of actually looking at the map made that point null.

"Well, there's a branch coming off of it in that direction, they went that way. I think there's a town or another motel or a truck stop down there. It's not on the map, we weren't sure."

"Of course not, it's a road map, not a tourist map, Sammy boy." The Doctor added this new information to what he'd racked up as useful. "Now, did they say anything else? Anything at all?" Sam shook his head. "Well then, Amy, Sam, we're going that way. Come along," Amy sighed in relief and began strolling toward the door. Sam nodded and plucked the gun out of the garbage can. They would need other weapons too, if it was indeed a vamp, but this was as good as he had. The rest of their stuff was in the Impala, and Dad and Dean had taken that with them. He stuffed the weapon into the back of his jeans and looked up at the other two, giving him looks like he was a zoo exhibit.

"What?"

"Leave that here. Please, guns make me uncomfortable." The Doctor nodded to the trash bin again. It was Sam's turn to stare.

"But we'll need something to get them with once we get there! And this is all I got." He held it up again, remembering to put the safety back on at the last moment. The Doctor pulled it, once again, out of his hand and shook his head.

"Now, Sam, that's not how we do things. Listen to me, do exactly as I say, and I promise we will get your family back. No. Guns." The placed it on the table and started towards the door. Sam shot a questioning glance to Amy, who nodded and followed The Doctor out into the parking lot. He gave the gun a last desperate glance before running after them, shutting the door behind him. Wouldn't want anybody finding any of their research or the weapon he'd just left sitting there. Damn it, he was forgetful today.

"So, where's your car?" Sam asked, huffing once they left the lot.

"It's not a car, she's a TARDIS and she's in the park where we found you." The Doctor slowed to a walk once across the street. Sam was starting to have his doubts that this man was a hundred percent sane, but then again, if you were a hunter you had to be off the deep end in one way or another.

"So we're going to the park, and then we take your 'TARDIS' to find Dean and my dad?" Sam asked, looking up at his two new friends. He thought they counted as friends, they were friendly enough, and he was sure they weren't monsters.

"Yup, that's the plan!" Amy piped up, skipping a few steps forward and catching up to The Doctor. While Sam grinned and walked behind them, she whispered, "Are we seriously going to see vampires? Like, real, actual vampires?"

"I don't know, but if we do… It'll be dangerous, I don't know how to deal with vampires, despite my extremely vast knowledge of all time and space." She nodded at his shoulder and looked back at Sam, who was glancing this way and that warily.

"But just think about it, Doctor, _real vampires._" Amy nearly squeaked.

"I know, this will be super cool." He smirked and held up a hand. She returned the high five and then called back,

"Oi, Sam, what're they like, your family? Anything we should know? They going to explode on us when we show up with you?"

Sam narrowed his eyes in thought. "Well, Dad—name's John—he's normally pretty quiet, but yeah, he'll take a bit out of you for taking me. Don't worry, I'll get it worse for following, believe me. And Dean, well, he wants to be just like Dad. He probably won't be mad at you."

The Doctor developed a wistful look and Amy nodded, pursing her lips. She would get to see vampires, and meet hunters. Not like half-pint over here, but monster hunters. She wondered how different hunting monsters was from chasing aliens and, well, monsters. They would definitely have their similarities. Chasing creatures, chasing creatures.

"Sam, why are you handling a gun?" The Doctor inquired. It'd been bugging him all night. Amy's eyebrows rose as the thought occurred to her in full.

Sam blinked as if it wasn't a rational question. "It's, uh, well it's how hunter's children are raised. You know, as hunters. We handle guns and we fight monsters. It's not that odd, weren't you raised in this life too? Or were you sucked in, because there have been a few of those. I know a couple. Well, dad knows a couple. I don't get to talk to them, but Bobby says that's what happened to him." When he noticed he was running on and invading their personal lives, just a tad, he shut himself up. It didn't stop him from expecting an answer though.

The Doctor nodded slowly, letting it sink in. Were people really raising their children like that? Well, obviously. Look at Sam here. Had to keep up his cover, couldn't stay silent for long. He looked at Amy and nodded a bit more exaggeratedly over his shoulder. "Yes, see, Amy is my cousin. Her mother was killed by a… Monster. You know." He really didn't know enough about this profession to make a proper profile for himself. He could try to explain to Sam again that they were time travelers and that he was an alien, but he figured that wouldn't go over well and he would just run off. And then they'd spend another few hours looking all over the town for him.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Sam apologized quickly. "If it makes you feel any better, my mom's dead too. I know how you feel."

Amy's eyes widened and she looked at The Doctor. He blinked once and shook his head. "Oh, look, we're almost there! See," He pointed out the clean-cut hedges growing on the other side of the road. "There it is! Soon we can get going!"

"Doctor," Amy hushed herself, "Should we, maybe, prepare him for the TARDIS? You know, so he doesn't start crying or pass out or something?"

"You'd be surprised how well some people take the TARDIS, Amy, for instance Donna Noble, wonderful woman, brilliant, didn't seem deterred by it at all. Didn't even care." He replied, stepping through the hedges and popping out in front of his box. He ran forward and leaned up against it, planning to make a stunning revelation. How he loved to show off. Amy followed, and after some hesitation Sam plowed through them too.

"Uh, what is that?" He asked, pointing at the Police Box in front of him. Amy gestured dramatically at it and The Doctor began, as if he'd had a speech prepared.

"Welcome to the TARDIS!" He pushed the door open and Amy made an 'oooo'-ing sort of noise. "That's 'time and relative dimension in space' for you newbies. This baby can travel through time and space, and can take us exactly where we need to go."

"Time and space?" Sam asked. Amy came up behind him and pushed him forwards into the box, nodding to The Doctor, who followed them both in and shut the door.

"Time and space!" Amy answered, making more impressed noises as she waved her arms at their surroundings. Sam just stood dumbfounded as The Doctor and his companion bounded up the stairs and they twirled around the control panel.

He finally managed to choke out, "It's bigger on the inside."


	5. Chapter 5

Alright, I think it's been… Three weeks? School is tough. I would've written some more over the weekend, but you see I was at a convention as Rainbow Dash and Castiel respectively (But everyone kept mistaking my Cas for the Tenth Doctor—For the last time he has a suit geez).

Still trying to figure out… _**Exactly**_ what it is they're going to find here, but I'll figure it out and then I'll write it down and hopefully get this story finished before next month is out.

Well, on with the show.

Sam felt a little dizzy after stepping onto the TARDIS, but he ignored it as well as he could and let the other two do their stuff. He didn't ask any questions, deciding instead to think up explanations on his own. It was more interesting that way anyway, he told himself. The Doctor and Amy dashed from here to there and everywhere around the console in the middle of the room, which was still unmistakably bigger than it looked from the outside, and pulled levers and pushed buttons. A monitor hung from the ceiling and displayed the park outside, and a giant clear tube stood in the middle of the panel. Sam guessed it was the power source.

"So, uh, we going soon?" This question wouldn't really stop their progress.

"Oh, yes." The Doctor answered and typed something into a computer. "As soon as I get the coordinates right. Amy," She looked up from her position, "Please give Sam the intro to safety speech?"

Sam tilted his head to the side and Amy nodded. She gestured for him to join them up by the machine and cleared her throat. "Sammy boy, welcome to the TARDIS!" She made more of those impressed noises she'd made earlier, but cut herself off and continued, "We're about to initiate travel, which means there'll be a lot of shaking and loud noise. To prevent any injury please make sure you—"

"Hold on to something!" The Doctor shouted and flipped a final lever, Amy darted for the stair rail. The TARDIS started quaking, The Doctor himself falling all over the console and holding himself up with… Something on the board. Sam toppled onto his side. The room was full of shouting and explanations he couldn't hear, but that was on behalf of his shouting and the groaning of the machine.

As abruptly as it had begun, the TARDIS settled down. The Doctor and Amy stood up and brushed themselves off. Sam sat up slowly, dizzier than he had been.

"Well, let's go then!" The man jumped down the stairs and held out a hand to his youngest passenger. He pulled Sam to his feet and then strode forward to open the door. The three walked out into the middle of a road. Well, that wasn't a very safe place to park. Looking around, though, it was a very overgrown road and The Doctor figured it would be safe here if the road wasn't often traveled.

"But, but we moved!" Sam's eyes looked like they would pop out of his head any second now, "How could we have moved?" He ran around the back of the police box, as if to make sure they really _had _moved. If not this was some sick joke.

"No matter, we should go find your family, yeah?" Amy grabbed his hand and pulled him back around the TARDIS, where The Doctor was already wandering off down the road. Sam pulled himself from Amy's grip and narrowed his eyes.

"Tell me how we got here." He demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and planting his feet firmly on the ground. He wasn't going anywhere if he could help it, and he could. He wasn't afraid to hit girls either.

"We don't have time, your brother and your father could be—and are probably in great danger as we speak. Finding them is our top priority." The Doctor spun around, but continued walking, though backwards now.

"You're not hunters." Sam stated. Amy blinked, and The Doctor didn't look very surprised. This just furthered his doubts about them.

"What? Of course we are! We're helping you hunt some vampires, aren't we? Doctor?" Amy scoffed, taken completely aback by the sudden declaration. She looked to her companion, trying to find some support there, but found none. Just defeat. He hung his head and let out a small sigh, trying to find the right way to word this.

"Sam, you're right. We're not hunters." He began to explain. He was cut off, or rather he cut himself off, when he heard the sounds of shoes slapping against pavement in front of him. He looked up from the ground. Sam had taken off running in the other direction, back towards the highway. "Wait, Sam! Wait!"

Sam wasn't going to stop. These people could be anybody, and he'd gone with them in the hopes of getting his family back. They weren't hunters, and they had gotten him to the desired location in a _box_ for Christ's sake. He just needed to find somewhere to hide until they'd gone, so that he could find his way back to the motel and call Bobby. Bobby could actually help him. He knew who Bobby was. He heard from behind him the sounds of The Doctor and Amy taking off after him, they were shouting at him to stop and listen to them. He was tempted to. After all, how was he going to find his way back? Not only that, but since they were already here, shouldn't they at least try to find Dean and Dad? He refused to listen to himself, nudging those thoughts to the back of his mind. He ran off the road, it would be harder to find him in the woods, he could find his way back, they couldn't.

"Sam, wait!" The Doctor watched the kid run into the woods and slowed to a stop. Amy stopped beside him, but looked like she wanted to keep going. However, knowing The Doctor had to have a plan, she looked up at him expectantly. The problem was, he didn't have as much a plan as an outline that could be made into a plan with further thinking. Well, two or three. They could sit outside the woods and wait for Sam to return, cold and hungry after his trek. Or they could go and wait in the TARDIS. Or, they could go into the woods after him and risk getting lost themselves, but that wouldn't happen, the woods weren't that deep.

"Doctor, what do we do?" Amy asked after a couple minutes of silence.

He glanced sideways at her and said solemnly, "We find out what we're up against." He turned around and began skulking—yes, skulking—back to the TARDIS. Amy stared after him in disbelief.

"So, we're just going to leave him?" She asked, eyes about the size of small dishes.

The Doctor nodded, continuing forward.

"But we can't just leave him out here! What if he's found by the… Whatever it is we're looking for?" She trotted after him, and walked into the box behind him.

"Because, Amy, there's a very good chance that whatever we're looking for has already found him."

** I'm sorry it's kind of short, but I was running out of room to… Do whatever I was planning on doing. I'm still trying to find something they're after… I have a vague idea, but that's about it, an outline. **

** Anyway, since next week is Spring Break week (it starts Thursday, actually), I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner rather than later. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Like I said, getting back to business with this fic. Gonna be doing Doctor/Amy POV, as if it wasn't like that already… Well… I'm more omnipotent, but… Eh. I'll also be trying to write… More detailed? Better? All of the above, actually. I've noticed it's not actually very good quality. I'll work to fix it.**

** I'll be/I've been researching a monster that might work with this story (Present and future tense because this should take me a few days, this chapter, I mean). Anyway, thank you all for supporting with reviews, and taking time out of your day to do so. I'm afraid our journey is almost over. Only a couple more chapters left, folks. I'll give you the warning. **

** Well, let's get started. **

The Doctor was off rummaging about in the closet in a hall coming off the main room, and Amy was watching the monitor intently. She'd convinced him to let her watch for Sam, in case he came back, or in case he came out of the woods again. If he did come back, oh would he get a scolding! She was about ready to throw the kid through a wall. The Doctor hopped up the stairs carrying what looked like an encyclopedia. It looked like it hadn't been touched in ages, though, dust at least two inches thick on the cover. He was sneezing up a storm when he brushed the years off with one hand and covered his nose with the other. Amy coughed, sneezed, and then backed up about five feet to spare herself.

"Doctor, what—" Another sneeze, "What is that?" She asked, standing on her tip-toes to see over his shoulder at the book. He was in the middle of a fit and didn't answer right away, but after he composed himself, he returned,

"It's Earth's Monsters: The Book." He stated, flipping open to a page somewhere in the middle of the book. He thumbed the corners of the pages until he found the one he was looking for, if he wasn't just being nostalgic. "Basically the encyclopedia of all the monsters Earth has ever had the fortune of housing." Amy was interested by the pictures on a few of the pages, but he was flipping through them too quickly for her to get a good look at most of them. Maybe she could convince him to let her read the book later, for fun.

"Looking up some vampires? Are you trying to tell me that you—you—haven't come across something like a vampire?" Amy asked, tauntingly. It was almost pathetic, she laughed at him inwardly.

"Amy, pay attention." He glanced over his shoulder at her and poked her in the forehead, "If you had been you would know that we are absolutely not fighting a vampire. Not even plural, _vampires." _No, he was looking for something different. Not too different, surely nothing Sam and his family had ever run into before, so he could understand how they would be confused. He didn't bother reading any of the words as he flipped through the thin, wearing pages, just giving the images a quick once-over before moving on. If he remembered this book properly, and he was pretty sure he had a good idea, it would be somewhere between the werewolves and the Loch Ness Monster (they were really, really off about that one, he couldn't even believe they'd thought it was a sea creature. Even the dinosaur theory was out there).

"Well, then, smarty-pants, what are we after?" She asked, giving his back one of her half-snarky 'I knew that' looks.

"The name seems to be escaping me at the moment, just give me a while, I'll find it." He replied, though she could tell that if she'd asked him what he wanted for dinner he would have answered the same. He tended to get absorbed in his work, so much so that he set default responses. She could always tell when he was off on some research project or another, he would answer her questions with ridiculous quotes and ignore her actual statement. Would have been just another day in the TARDIS, if they didn't have a child out there in danger.

Rolling her eyes, Amy walked back over to the monitor, hoping she hadn't missed Sam passing by—though she doubted that she had. It'd almost been an hour since he'd run off, he'd have come back by now, or made it to the highway. The maps were pretty accurate, and they weren't far off the main road. God, she hoped he'd made it to the highway. If what The Doctor said was true, he had already been taken by… Whatever it was they were looking for. But, then again, he did say _taken. _That was promising, right? "So, Doctor, when do you think we'll be able to go find them?" She asked, only half to get an answer.

"Not now Amy, only a few more moments, and I'll have _it_…" The last word was drawn out, to show her that he was concentrating very hard on whatever it was he was doing. She heaved a sigh and flopped into the companion's chair. It was, in truth, anybody who wanted to sit there's chair, however unimportant that might be. She ran a hand down her face in exasperation. She hoped the kid was alright. She had a thing for kids, she supposed it came with being a woman. Never really occurred to her to think about it.

He suddenly jumped in place two or three times, and started making small, distressed noises. He pointed at the page in the book, and then punched the console. Amy watched in fascination. _The wild Doctor in his natural habitat, trying to alert it's companion that it has found something edible on the ground. _She rolled her eyes and walked over to where he was pointing and trying to form words.

"English, Doctor." She patted him on the back, "Don't hurt yourself." She took a look at the page he was pointing at. Relieved that they found what they were looking for, she asked, "Well, what is it?" The book wasn't really in English itself, so she couldn't be sure.

He ran a hand through his hair and let out the breath he'd been holding for the past thirty seconds. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before now!"

"What, didn't notice what?" She pressed, jabbing him in the side. _Spit it out already. _

"They're hunting Revenants, Amy, Revenants!" He shook her by the shoulders, and she suspected he was taking out his anger about not realizing before on her. She shrugged him off and walked towards the book. Since she still couldn't read it, though, she had to ask,

"What's a Revenant-whatever?" A better question, in her opinion, would be 'how do you kill a Revenant'.

"A Revenant, Amy, is a corpse, returned from the dead to wreak havoc upon the living. Or, at least that's what it says in this book…" He started mumbling to himself, before he nodded, shook his head, nodded again, and continued, "See, they've an appetite similar to vampires, but they're not as… Change-y."

"Change-y?"

"Yes, change-y. Can you come up with anything better? No!" He snorted, scanning the book's page again. "But something's not right…"

"Do re-animated corpses have brains, Doctor?" Amy asked curiously, peeking over at the pictures in the book. It looked like they could be animals, people, you name it.

"No, that's part of the problem. I've never seen a Revenant before, but I doubt they would take this much caution when they eat… There might be something else out there," He narrowed his eyes at the page and wrinkled his nose. "Yes, definitely something else."

"But Doctor, we can't just leave Sam out there while we waste time figuring out what it is." Amy huffed. He glanced quickly up at her and nodded in agreement. She folded her arms over her chest and waited for his decision. Help the kid, find out what it was, help the kid, find out what it was, help the kid… Help the kid. He nodded again and stood up straight.

"Amy, get a coat. It's getting dark." He closed the book and looked at the monitor. Nothing had moved out there for ages now, he hoped they weren't too late.

"So, Doctor, if the Revenants don't have brains… And if they're rotting corpses or something, why did they get caught? I mean, aren't they almost professionals?" Amy asked, shrugging further into her coat as the sun slipped further below the horizon.

"See, that's what I was wondering. Why something else must be behind it. A couple of Revenants, or even a small colony of them, they could be taken out by a child with a baseball bat. Something has to be behind it…" He was still trying to work it out himself. Anything could take a few of the creatures under their power if they had the time and the tools. Which was just about anybody on Earth, when it came down to it. Well, he could rule out babies. Babies couldn't talk or walk, let alone run an undead army. Even one of the Revenants would be able to take out a baby. That was upsetting, babies would be much easier to deal with than what it probably would be.

"What are you thinking it could be? Surely nothing you haven't dealt with before, nothing you couldn't handle." She perked up, looking at him expectantly, though it was more or less in the hopes of getting out of the cold sooner rather than later.

"I don't know, Amy. I really don't know." He replied, and her face fell.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be fine," She kept on, smiling again, "Always are. There's always a way to win, yeah?" The Doctor nodded solemnly. Of course there was. Just had to keep thinking positive, right?

"Yes, of course." He replied audibly when he noticed she was no longer looking at him.

"Where do we start looking for them?" She asked.

"I'd guess down this road. If not deliberate, there's less of a chance we'll get lost." She chirped a happy reply he wasn't quite listening to. He looked from side to side into the woods, searching for any sign of life, or half-life, it might seem. Smoke from a fire, twigs snapping, birds flying away from trees, anything. Anything at all.

Amy also began scanning the trees and beyond, glaring at the trunks like she wanted to set them on fire. She muttered something about what a fun trip this was turning out to be, and he chuckled halfheartedly. It was a few moments later that she gripped his arm as tightly as she could and make a small squeaking noise. After regaining control of her mouth, she leveled her voice and said, "Doctor,"

"Hm?" He looked over his shoulder from where he'd been searching the other side of the road.

"What's that?" She asked, unmoving. He followed her line of vision.

"Oh my—"

**Again, I'd like to thank you all for putting up with that horrible writing, geez that was awful. **

** I've a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this, and since it's obviously AU you understand that it won't be very accurate in canon terms. I'll try not to go all out stupid, but you never know. **

** Also, special thanks to **_**quoththeraven5 **_**who comments on just about every single update. Motivation is a plus. **

** /ollies outie**


	7. Chapter 7

** Wow, guys, thanks for the sudden review blowup! **

** Since I got such a giant response to my last chapter, I'm gonna get this next one up sooner. Wait.. Yeah, sorry, getting all my thoughts down. When you see this, the next one will be up so. XD **

** Thanks again. **

** Here we go! On to the best part of writing a story, creating an unsettling atmosphere! **

"Oh my—" The Doctor's eyes widened as he looked to the trees. He hadn't seen anything like this before, it was almost exiting. But at the same time it was horrifying and he couldn't place it. Amy seemed to have regained control of herself, because she was slowly walking toward the trees with a far-off look on her face. He held her by the shoulder as he tried to size up what, exactly, he was looking at.

The trees on the left side of the road were carved into strange shapes, and onto those were carved elaborate symbols that varied in complexity. It seemed the most simplistic were on the edge, and the further off the road one went the larger and stranger they became. Not to mention the trees started looking more and more like deformed human bodies, standing like dancers in evenly-spaced circles around each other. Something… Unsettling… gave the trees and their trunks a mucky red appearance. Something gave The Doctor the sinking feeling that he should turn back, and perhaps get assistance. Then again, who would be able to help in such a situation? Not to mention, Amy had lifted his hand off of her shoulder and started walking towards it again, determination etched across her features. The Doctor frowned, but caught up to his companion and they both made their way, slowly, across the road to the strange crop.

"Doctor," Amy said, keeping her voice even, "What are these symbols?" She reached out toward a carving, longing to run her fingers over the indents, but tore her hand back quickly. Who knows what that could do? She turned around and saw him doing the very same thing, instead deciding to circle around one of the trees and look it over several times, committing it to memory.

"I'm not sure…" He relied. "I think it may be worse than we originally thought." He shot a look at her, raising an eyebrow. _Sure you want to go through with this? _

Amy nodded, taking a couple of cautious steps forward, looking over her shoulder at the road. With the sun going down and all of these strange carvings—they had much the same effect on her as the Weeping Angels—standing around her, the road and the TARDIS were looking much more inviting than they ever had before, and that was saying something. The Doctor followed closely behind her, for which she was grateful.

It only seemed to get worse as they walked on, though the trees were spaced a bit further apart now they were plaster thicker with symbols and clumps of white mold. How long have these been here? Surely not that long. The disappearances have only been happening for a few weeks, what could have done all this in that time? The Doctor was observing them very closely, trying to make sense of whatever was written on the contorted trees. Because it had to be some sort of writing, he just didn't understand it, and that was disconcerting.

"So, do you think we're almost there?" He asked, initiating conversation to keep both of their minds off of whatever it was they were walking towards. The more freaked they were, the worse the outcome of the whole excursion, no doubt.

Amy shook her head to say that she didn't know. "You hear anything?" She asked quietly. He shook his head, forgetting she couldn't see him.

"Oh, no." He was a good deal louder than she was, but under his voice he managed to make out the snapping of twigs and the rustling of long-dead leaves being disturbed. "Oh, I mean, yes." Amy didn't seem comforted by the fact that she wasn't just hearing things, contrary to what he hoped to accomplish. She looked over her shoulders in both directions, backing up until The Doctor and herself were standing back to back looking into the woods surrounding them. The sun was nearly under the horizon by now, as evidence by the shadows in every direction regardless of whether or not the clump of trees they were standing in had a leaf canopy or not.

"Doctor, what's making that sound?" She whispered, holding her arms out like she would punch the monster away if it happened to run at her. He had no doubts that she would, actually.

"I don't know." He told her, pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket and pointing it in the direction of the trees. He pushed the button on the side, and a small circle of light illuminated the gap between contorted shapes for about four feet in that direction. A grunt sounded from the trees to their right, and more crunching noises as whatever it was stumbled in the direction of the light.

"Turn it off!" Amy hissed through her teeth, wide eyes never leaving the direction of the sound, though it was hard to determine it's exact location.

"No, I want to see what it is. Once I have, we can—" He stopped abruptly when something stepped into the path of the screwdriver. And damn was it ugly. Eyes sunken in and teeth chattering as if the jaw wasn't held to the head by anything but the thinning flesh on it's cheeks, the Revenant was nothing he wanted to look at, nor did he want Amy to see it, lest she have nightmares. After getting a quick look at their adversary, The Doctor released the button and grabbed Amy's wrist. She squeaked, before being pulled off further into the forest of carved, humanoid trees. The crackling of leaves underfoot and an occasional stumble lead them to believe they were still being followed, but they didn't care much, they just wanted to get out of it's way. The Doctor shone the light again, checking for it's location, it couldn't be that fast, could it? He didn't see it behind them, but it could also be off to the side. With that thought, he veered sharply to the right and away from their original 'path'.

He paused behind one of the trees, resting his back against it instinctively and peering around the side for their pursuer. He couldn't see it in what little light was still in the woods with them, but decided it best not to shine the light again. He could still hear it, distant and behind them, crying in much the same way a whale does, that way that makes you want it to shut up.

Amy yanked her hand from his grip and panted heavily, leaning against a tree of her own. "What, what happened?" She asked, already half-knowing the answer.

"I was right, Revenants." He answered, taking a step away from the tree to look around. She nodded and stood upright. "Now, we should hurry and find the others. They could be anywhere, and it's getting darker by the second."

"Can't get much worse now, can it?" She asked, laughing a little bit.

"Oh, no, never say that." The Doctor darted around their position, scanning everything in every direction. "Don't ever say that." He knew very well that now it would be so much worse than it would have been before.

"Oh, sorry." Her voice dripped with sarcasm, she rolled her eyes. "Where do we go now, genius?"

"We keep looking. Can't be far now, these woods weren't that deep and we've been at it for a while." He started in the direction they'd come from, and she followed after him, hearing nothing from the Revenant they'd apparently seen. "And, with the symbols closer and more desperately used in this area, I'd imagine we're almost there…" She nodded, though he couldn't see her, and kept following. However, she kept a good, watchful eye over her shoulder at all times.

**That was fun. For me. **

** I had fun with that. Anyway, enjoy the happy, cheerful chapter I just presented you with. A reward for all of my beautiful reviewers, I suppose. **


	8. Chapter 8

** Onward we go, readers, into one of the last chapters in the story, if I can't stretch it out. Fair warning is coming, though, before. **

** Thanks again for the reviews, I understand now why people make a big deal of them, they are great motivation to make another chapter or finish one you've already started. **

** Here we go! **

The Doctor and Amy stopped just feet away from the edge of the oddly shaped trees. In the clearing beyond, they could hear voices. More specifically, one voice, but it sounded like it was trying to have a conversation, but irritated because it wasn't getting one. More grunts and bubbling croaks sounded from close by, but they weren't worried about them at this point, they were too close for their liking though. What really caught their attention was what they could see of the clearing. Dead ahead of them, tied up beside each other, was Sam, a teenager, and a man who looked to be in his forties or so. The Doctor guessed that they were the brother and father Sam was talking about earlier.

"Doctor, there they are!" Amy hissed quietly, just catching a glimpse of them herself.

"Yes…" He was already looking for something to help get them out. There was nothing immediately striking him, though.

"How do we get them out? Should I distract… Whoever that is? Or should I get them out, and you could—"

"Amy, I really don't think it's going to work like that." The Doctor replied, crouching and slinking closer to the sound of the voice they were hearing. "This is something new, I'm afraid I don't know exactly how to get them out." Amy followed behind him, trying to catch their eyes as she went, trying to tell them that they were here to save the day. It was probably better she wasn't noticed.

"Come on boys, don't be like that. You know," The voice was becoming more distinguishable from all the background noise, though it was still pretty quiet. They couldn't get much closer, or Amy's head—looking generally like it was on fire—would have given away their position. "I've always wanted to talk to you. Oh, I've heard such _nice _things about you bunch." The owner of the voice was out of view, but they could guess she was pretty young.

"Talk to me!" She pleaded, "Sammy! Little Sammy, you _must _have something to talk about! How did you get here? We weren't expecting you to just _walk _to us!" Amy watched Sam's father shoot him a look, the kid responding with an eye roll. "Aw come on! I was hoping that since you're here I would finally have somebody to talk to! I know! How's school going, boys?"

Amy guessed she just loved to hear herself talk.

"John, dear, stop being so quiet! You know, I just hate when houseguests feel uncomfortable. Very, very awkward dinner parties, that makes." The Doctor and Amy slowed up when they could finally see who was speaking. She was in her twenties or thereabouts, with short, dark hair and bright colors on her clothing. If she wanted to stand out against the dark, she was sure doing it right. She was almost as obvious in this environment as Amy was.

"Oh, you know what? It just occurred to me… John, did you leave the oven on at home?" She laughed heartily, as though it were the funniest thing in the world, tossing her head back and everything.

John—they'd guessed this was Sam's father's name—sat there with his sons looking as un-amused as people could look. The woman started walking towards them on quick feet, barely touching the ground.

"Talk to me, guys. This is the literal _last thing _I want to be doing right now, so the least you can do is compensate for my trouble." She crouched down before them, resting her chin on her knees. Her eyes flickered from Dean to Sam and then to John, not bothering to give any of them more than a second's individual notice. "And I'm getting tired of talking to myself."

"You'd think you'd be used to it by now." Dean smirked, instantly reprimanded by John with a scolding look.

"Oh, you've got a mouth on you! I could fix that, if you want." She gave him an equally devious smirk of her own, before looking next to him at his younger brother. Sam looked seething, but was looking anywhere but the woman in front of him. "And do you have anything to say, little Sammy?" She pouted when she didn't get a response.

"Doctor," Amy whispered from behind The Doctor, who looked away from the scene to his companion. "How do we get her away from them?"

"It shouldn't be too hard, Amy, I mean, she's only a woman. Nothing we haven't dealt with before." The Doctor replied, looking over his shoulder to make sure there were no Revenants coming their way. The way seemed to be clear, and he was grateful for that at least. That was the last thing they needed.

"Now come on, please, tell me something. Anything. Dean, any snide remarks from you?" The woman looked at him expectantly, but he didn't reply, still under the stern gaze of his father. "John, you _must _want to say something? How about, yes, why don't you tell Sam off for following you hear against your orders? You _know _you want to do that!" She tipped her head to the side and gave a smile another try.

"And what would _you _rather be doing, you sick bitch?" Dean asked, ignoring his father's deadpan. He looked very smug, even under her upset eye.

"I was actually planning on seeing my _boyfriend _tonight, if you must know. But then _you three _decided tonight was the night to pop up. Ruined all of my plans." She rolled her eyes and stood up, sighing.

"You have a boyfriend?" Dean asked. "Honey, I doubt that." The Doctor wondered what on earth he was planning to achieve with this conversation. Unless..

"Sweetie, I have loads. You'd be surprised how many, actually. The span of my life has left _a lot _of room for pitiful relationships. This one was going to end tonight, truthfully." She seemed intent on explaining it to them now. So that _was _her plan. "He's been so obsessed with his job recently, had no time for our anniversary last month. It's been a year." She turned her back on them momentarily, and something flashed in John's hand. "I thought that we could live happily for at least another few years, but no."

"Happy? With you? You blab so much I'm _surprised _he hasn't put a bullet through his head yet." Dean interjected, looking pleased with himself. She spun around, the opposite effect of what he wanted to happen.

"And what about you, Dean? When was the last time you were in a relationship, huh?"

"Sugar, relationships aren't my thing." He sighed.

Then she noticed something moving behind him. "Oh, Johnny boy, what on earth are you doing with that?" She asked, sugar-coating her voice, rising in volume the angrier she got.

"He's making Christmas dinner. What does it look like he's doing, you hag?" Dean spat, all trace of his smile gone.

She crouched down a few paces from them, glaring right into his eyes. "I would cut it, now, Dean. Wouldn't want to lose that tongue of yours, you seem so fond of hearing yourself talk."

"I could say the same about you, princess." He retorted.

She shot forward, but aimed for John, more specifically the knife he was cutting the ropes with. He'd been working slowly to make himself look less suspicious, but it didn't do him much good in the long run.

The Doctor shot out of the trees and announced, "Hello, we seem to be lost!" The woman turned around and hissed at him, and he continued, "Could you direct us back to the highway, by chance?" His little outburst gave John the chance to finish the job, and in a second he was on his feet, and he had the woman by the wrists.

Dean caught the knife as it hit the ground and set to work on his own ropes, freed himself and began on his brother.

"So, seems a little less talkative when the roles are reversed, huh sugar?" Dean asked once they were all free.

"Seems that way," She mocked, tugging at her wrists fruitlessly. A shrill whistle came forth from her mouth, through clenched teeth.

Suddenly the forest around them erupted with loud groans and grunts of all pitches and lengths, the party froze where they stood. Revenants, all of the Revenants in the forest surrounding them, they all charged through the trees as fast as they could hobble, limp, or crawl. John, who'd had just about enough of this, took his knife and plunged it through the woman's chest, before grabbing the hand of his youngest son and running. Dean followed quickly, and the woman fell to the ground in a gurgling heap. The Doctor and Amy stood there for a few moments longer in shock, but when the first couple of the undead started crashing through the clearing they took off after the others.

The Winchesters reached the Impala fairly quickly, each of them being able to run a small marathon without breaking a sweat at this point, but they didn't stick around to see The Doctor and Amy finally flop out of the woods, pick themselves up and run into the TARDIS. They were already on the highway, calling Bobby. Bobby was going to alert all of the hunters in the nearby counties to their small problem, and they would come perform clean-up of the Revenants. Now that the witch was dead, they would roam aimlessly in the woods and surrounding areas (all pretty abandoned) until they were taken out by their backup or they were hit by cars. A couple were bound to be ganked by the latter.

They drove to the motel in relative silence, Sam and Dean dreading the amount of yelling to come when they got back to the motel, something about disobeying orders for the both of them to listen to until the night was out and they left town again. For once they had hoped they would just be able to sit around and celebrate a job well done, but for John Winchester, you could never just have a good hunt. They rounded the last bend into the motel parking lot, and parked. He gave them both a stern glare, and got out. The brothers looked at each other in a near-grieving way, and then followed him out.

"Listen, dad—" Dean began, working on softening the blow to his little brother, when he was cut off by a man clearing his throat from inside the motel room.

"Doctor!" Sam gasped, and Amy waved at the kid, who ran into the room and stood next to them. John wouldn't yell quite so much if they had guests.

"Oh, and John, you're welcome." The Doctor sighed before taking a seat on one of the two beds. "Nice retreat. Definitely could've used some work on the form, however."

**And that's it until after Easter, but I hoped you enjoyed that… Whatever that was. **

** Tried to update earlier, but I couldn't figure out how exactly they would get out of this one. Excuse me if the escape seemed a little bit rushed, it was. I couldn't figure exactly how it would work so I went with whatever tipped my fancy. And that was that. **

** Have you guys also noticed that the demon or monster or whatever almost never checks them over for knives? Or was that just me? **


	9. Chapter 9 Final

** Okay, this is the warning you're getting. This is the **_**last chapter. **_**After this, I'll probably kick off another story, so… Unimportant. This story is over, that's all you need to know. Well, thanks again for all your reviews and things, and take this thanks in the form of a chapter. Hurray, yeah? **

"I'm sorry, did you just… _critique our retreating skills?" _Dean asked, raising an eyebrow. Sam didn't look the least bit confused, he was too bust chatting with Amy about the events of the night.

"Oh, no, Dean, yours was spectacular, if I do say so myself, and I do." The Doctor grinned at him, but that smile was wiped off his face when he looked back to John. "Really though, you're welcome. Thanks, also, for running away without making sure we were following and not, I don't know, eaten by Revenants." He had a particular gleam to his eye, it was nearly cruel. Amy smacked his shoulder lightly, and he turned to look at her. After a minute he seemed to have calmed down.

"I was protecting my boys." John retorted, it was a little late, though. Dean rolled his eyes and walked up behind Sam. He started ruffling the boy's hair, and Sam spun around and wacked his hand away.

"Hey! Stop that!" He commanded. Dean lifted his hands in mock surrender and slung an arm around his brother's shoulders.

"So, Sammy, wasn't that just the best? You got to watch your big bro in action." He beamed in pride, until he heard the scoffing from not only his little brother, but from Amy as well.

"More like listen! Couldn't stop flapping your gums out there, could'ja?" She laughed.

"Could you two move out, whoever you are? I need to speak with my son—"

"No, I need to speak with you, John." The Doctor nodded to Amy, who took both Sam and Dean out of the room and back to the parking lot. Once the door was closed, they both pressed their ears against it and listened intently, Amy joining them.

.

"So, John, sit down. Explain to me, how exactly you're raising your children." The Doctor was watching him closely, every little detail was studied. John narrowed his eyes and balled his hands into fists.

"Listen here," He spat with malice, having taken this talk from Bobby far too many times for his liking already, "I raise my kids the best I can, and until you have some of your own and realize just how fucked up life is for them, then you can't judge me!" His eyes the pits of Hell, John was about ready to bundle Sam and Dean into the car and leave at that exact moment. Who the fuck was this guy, telling him what to do with his kids? And another hunter! He should understand what it had to be like!

"Answer me this…" The Doctor licked his lips nervously. "Is it necessary, that they grow up like this?" He looked up at John from where his head was bowed next to him.

John was taken aback for a moment, and so were the boys listening at the door. It was a while before he could form proper words, at which time he answered, simply, "Yes."

The Doctor nodded, though disappointed. Yes, he guessed it was necessary, the way Sam talked about them, and their whole community. "Alright." He turned away and strode toward the door, pulling it open. He was hardly surprised to see the three big children nearly toppling over each other into the room—unexpected door opening and all. He nodded to Amy, who patted Sam on the shoulder before following him across the parking lot to where, they now noticed, a blue police box sat.

"Hey. Hey wait!" Sam shouted after them, The Doctor stopping halfway into the box to peek back out at him. "Where are you going now?"

"That's apparently up to this old girl." He patted the doorframe of the TARDIS, smiling fondly. Amy huffed some agitated words from inside, before noticing he wasn't talking about her.

"Well, uh, hope to see you again!" Sam bid farewell with a bright smile and a wave, Dean standing behind him looking just slightly cautious of the man and his companion.

"You too, Sammy, you too!" And with that, The Doctor closed the TARDIS' door and headed up the steps to the console.

**And that concludes our journey, folks. **

** I'm crying manly tears. **

** Manly tears. Don't you forget it. **


End file.
